I read somewhere that one could increase their inherent happiness by writing down three things about their day which made them happy. Doing this for two weeks increased happiness for six months. I like this idea, but I think I'll use a 3+1 option where I also get to rant about something as well. What can I say? Ranting makes me happy. And blogging this way, no one has to listen against their will.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Do, Done, Did

I've been racking up some pictures to share, and it's about time to have something happiness related and not political, so here goes.

First, the pop-art pins I selected from grandma's vast collection of costume jewelry have been mounted and put on display!

For the rest of the pictures,

Read More.
I can't remember when I first started mounting stuff on foamcore for display, but I've done seasonal cookie cutters with straight pins, and I keep my necklaces on a similar arrangement. When I picked up the pins, I tried to mostly do flower based ones that screamed "pop art" to me. Still, I couldn't resist the two piece phone, and grandma was well known for wearing circle pins so I needed a sampling, plus I passed over 15 other gold leaves to pick this one, and there were holiday pins, then the similar themed earrings.

I laid the pins and earrings out in various patterns on foam core, took pictures, and tried again. Here's my first effort.

The green foamcore was an attempt at a "meadow" color from the owner of a sign store where I stopped in to inquire about a banner for an art fair booth, (assuming I get back into the glass studio again...). I asked if he had colored foam core. He didn't but he did have this plastic coating, and made me up this bit gratis. Thanks sign guy! I finished it off with white and green electrical tape. (Both greens adjacent were a little too much.) Did I mention how happy electrical tape makes me?

While I liked that arrangement with the focus on the flowers in the middle, it seemed too cluttery and random. In this next version, I decided to group the earrings to make a feature.

I liked the line, but I didn't want the earrings to be the dominant focus. So I tried about 6 other arrangements that I won't be sharing with you, but suffice it to say, this one was my winner. There's room for improvement, but it's good enough and I like it, and I got it DONE and hung up. The "hung up" picture was first, so here's the closeup.

The pins are hanging up, looking cheerful, right where I can see them from my bed (not on purpose, but I like it), right over my new shoe rack. The rack is also visible from the front door and used to look like this. Notice the arm-banging, over-full basket on the right hand side among the cluttery look.

I've been looking and looking for a solution. I'd even drafted a closet with moveable sides so I could maintain access to the overhead furnace filter. (It would have been an awesome closet.) But I think this is better. That half day off, which I spent shopping online, bore fruit. Much cleaner looking, no?

Thanks to Overstock.com with $1 shipping, and a cabinet that exactly fits the space (or will once I fix the trim situation). Only 13" deep (perfect), it has little drawers on top to hold my orthotics (why does that word always make me think of adult diapers? It's awful.) So now my shoe modifiers are in drawers where they don't snag me on the way to the bathroom. I think I need to put in one more shelf, if I can swing it because then I'll be within 2 pairs of the storage of the previous rack.

Speaking of the bathroom, my toilet sprung a leak. The porcelain god is a jet flush version, so I wasn't sure I'd be able to find or fix the leak.

Fortunately, the knob on the right hand side with a hole in the middle was beading up water. It was easy to twist off, and I found a little vent valve/gasket inside that was looking worse for wear. The contact info was all on the top, and Flushmate has a website that let me order the duckbill valve for $1.35 each (minimum order of 4, but whatever), and they came in 2 days. So I only had three days of shutting off the water to the toilet after each use and the new valve works like a champ. I taped the bag of replacement valves in the tank, behind the mechanism, for when this one needs replacing. Here I'm holding the old valve which is all bent and buckled instead of straight and thin.
(Those two pics were inspired by NewDoorKnobs car door fix, although we can all agree that taking apart a car door and putting it back together correctly is much more impressive.)

2 comments:

Well, these pictures have shamed me into doing something about my drippy-sounding toilet. Or at least figuring out whether it's really wasting water. (It's possible that it has just has a very long drippy-sounding but non-wasteful finale to each flush cycle. Doing the dye test now.)

That shoe thing looks perfect for your needs. And I like what you did with grandma's jewelry. How many different colors of electrical tape do you have?

I think some of the colors are left over from the pack you gave me for christmas an eon or two ago. It hasn't gone bad yet. Still recently I've been picking up more. Home Depot sells tape in Home Depot Orange which I use to label my glassblowing tools. I've got at least 2 widths of black, plus red, blue, green, and yellow. I used the colored stuff with some electrical repair and matched the color to the wire insulation.